Monday, August 2, 2010

The militant group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and the ground crew union Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) called on the management of Philippine Airlines (PAL) not to file cases against the pilots who abruptly resigned. Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and PM vice-chairperson, urged PAL to “Think twice before swinging the Damocles sword on the heads of the pilots lest the company face a three-front war against all of its employees.”

PAL is faced with an ongoing labor dispute with its ground crew over the planned contracting out of jobs that will affect some 3,000 employees and the threat of a strike by flight attendants over a deadlock in collective bargaining negotiations. Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson challenged the ground crew, flight attendants and airline pilots to unite to defend job security and working conditions at the country’s biggest domestic and international carrier.

Rivera explained that “The pilots resigned not simply because they were poached by other airlines with offers of better pay as PAL’s propaganda releases state. The pilots were enticed by better conditions which assure them of security of tenure and good benefits unlike their status as contractuals in PAL. The impromptu resignation by a dozen PAL pilots is the damaging results of management’s drive to make all of its employees contractual instead of regular.”

“The Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines was busted in 1998 so the pilots’ discontent was expressed in individual resignation instead of collective protest. But their deteriorating working conditions are no different from that experienced by flight attendants and ground crew. All for one, one for all in the fight against labor contractualization and union busting by PAL,” Rivera added.

Meanwhile Magtubo appealed to the Aquino government to review the policy prohibiting the migration of workers classified as mission-critical skills. “Prohibiting the migration of skilled workers by six months is unduly discriminatory on labor and one-sidedly favors capital. After the six month ban, there is no assurance that the offers remain for these skilled workers who just want a better life for their families. If capitalists want to retain skilled workers in the country then they must match the good pay, regular jobs and better working conditions offered abroad.”
PM reiterated its support for the fight of PALEA and the flight attendants. PALEA is scheduled to attend a conciliation meeting called by the Labor Department on August 12. “We welcome the preference of Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to mediate the labor dispute unlike the former Acting Labor Secretary Romeo Lagman who unilaterally issued a midnight decision favoring PAL management,” Rivera stated.

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Our dream is a world that gives due importance to the role of the working class and respects the dignity of labor. A social order where the working men and women of the world live together in peace, harmony and progress.Our aspirations lie in the emancipation of labor. A government that is truly of the workers, by the workers and for the workers.

Our hopes rest in a future where social progress thrives not for the benefit of a few people but for the development and richness of the entire humankind. A society that is free from the chains of wage slavery and where oppression does not exist.

Our Mission

Forge the unity of the workers into an independent working class party to organize them as a potent political force in social transformation towards the advancement and protection of labor from the scourge of globalization, establishment of a genuine workers’ government and the emancipation of the working class from capitalist exploitation and wage slavery.

Workers Unite!

The working class is the most important class in society. But, labor will only be a force to reckon with at a time when labor assumes the responsibility of leading the struggle to a decent living - free from exploitation of the propertied elite.

The time has come to rally every underprivileged sector of the society, to take the bull by the head and confront the issues of today. The working class must take an active role in every political exercise presented. The backbone of the independent party must be comprised of the working class with the other marginalized sectors in solidarity.

We must organize politically.

This is our own challenge and we must vow not to shirk from it.

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